Qantas workers serve notice to strike

24 March 2006

Qantas maintenance workers have threatened to strike following the national carrier’s decision to service one of its jets in Singapore according to the Australian Associated Press. The threat emerged from stopwork rallies attend by about 400 maintenance workers in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane today, as their relations with the airline soured.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) national secretary Doug Cameron said the decision to service the jet in Singapore had angered maintenance workers who were already convinced Qantas is shopping around for an overseas service provider.

He said the decision flew in the face of assurances by Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon that the airline wanted to keep its maintenance operations in Australia.

Qantas Statement On Aircraft Maintenance

Qantas said today it was still committed to keeping aircraft heavy maintenance work in Australia.

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The Executive General Manager of Qantas Engineering, Mr David Cox, said the arrangement for a single Boeing 747-400 aircraft to undergo a heavy maintenance check in Singapore next month was not out of the norm.

“We are in a transition period ahead of moving our heavy maintenance operations to Avalon,” Mr Cox said.

“On occasion we carry out maintenance work offshore - work that is done by qualified, reputable and fully certified service providers. We have made no secret of this and it will continue when necessary.

“To be clear - right now we have plans for one aircraft to undergo a maintenance check overseas, however we will always reserve the right to send some work offshore to meet operational requirements where necessary.”——-